A bumpy, yet successful, April for the Phillies

PATRICK BERKERY

Thursday

Apr 28, 2011 at 12:01 AMApr 28, 2011 at 10:50 AM

We woke up this morning to find the Phillies in first place, in need of just one win in the next two games to equal their highest win total ever for April (17 in 1993). Considering they've achieved this without Chase Utley and, to a lesser extent, Brad Lidge, that's not too shabby.

But factor in all the injuries (waiting for word on Chooch; our colleague Randy Miller seems to think he's going on the 15-day DL with Triple A vet/local product Erik Kratz getting the call up from Lehigh Valley), the perceived friction between Charlie Manuel and Ruben Amaro regarding the use of Jose Contreras, certain media members chirping over the team's disclosure of injuries, each of the Four Aces showing their humanity and getting lit up at some point, and an offense that - until Ben Francisco's garbage time home run early Wednesday morning - had gone 14 games without scoring more than four runs, it feels like we've just endured a July-type grind of a month.

So far, so good, so bumpy… so what? It doesn't matter how you arrive at a successful April, it's that you have a successful April.

That currently under-employed baseball sage Larry Bowa once said "You don't win pennants in April but you sure can lose them." And the Phillies could have easily dug themselves a deep hole this month with a top-heavy, patchwork lineup and their mix-and-match bullpen.

Instead, the bullpen has been mostly very solid thanks to Jose Contreras and Ryan Madson giving up next to nothing (one ER between them) on the back-end, and lefty Antonio Bastardo looking as though he's finally turned the corner (1 ER in 10.1 IP, 13.9 K/9, left-handed hitters are 1-for-15 against him).

You've got to think that once the wounded heal and return, the run to another Red October will feel more like a well-paced jog than a three-legged sack race. Even if that run is less than smooth, we know this team can weather it. They've shown it in the past, and they’ve proved it right out of the gate in 2011.

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